Bird or Beast?

Did any bird come flying After Adam and Eve, When the door was shut against them And they sat down to grieve?

I think not Eve’s peacock Splendid to see, And I think not Adam’s eagle; But a dove may be.

Did any beast come pushing Through the thorny hedge 10 Into the thorny thistly world, Out from Eden’s edge?

I think not a lion, Though his strength is such; But an innocent loving lamb May have done as much.

If the dove preached from her bough and the lamb from his sod, The lamb and dove Were preachers sent from God. 20

EVE

‘While I sit at the door Sick to gaze within Mine eye weepeth sore For sorrow and sin: As a tree my sin stands To darken all lands; Death is the fruit it bore.

‘How have Eden bowers grown Without Adam to bend them! How have Eden flowers blown 10 Squandering their sweet breath Without me to tend them! The Tree of Life was ours, Tree twelvefold-fruited, Most lofty tree that flowers, Most deeply rooted: I chose the tree of death.

‘Hadst thou but said me nay, Adam, my brother, I might have pined away; 20 I, but none other: God might have let thee stay Safe in our garden, By putting me away Beyond all pardon.

‘I, Eve, sad mother Of all who must live, I, not another Plucked bitterest fruit to give My friend, husband, lover-- 30 O wanton eyes, run over; Who but I should grieve?-- Cain hath slain his brother: Of all who must die mother, Miserable Eve!’

Thus she sat weeping, Thus Eve our mother, Where one lay sleeping Slain by his brother. Greatest and least 40 Each piteous beast To hear her voice Forgot his joys And set aside his feast.

The mouse paused in his walk And dropped his wheaten stalk; Grave cattle wagged their heads In rumination; The eagle gave a cry From his cloud station; 50 Larks on thyme beds Forbore to mount or sing; Bees drooped upon the wing; The raven perched on high Forgot his ration; The conies in their rock, A feeble nation, Quaked sympathetical; The mocking-bird left off to mock; Huge camels knelt as if 60 In deprecation; The kind hart’s tears were falling; Chattered the wistful stork; Dove-voices with a dying fall Cooed desolation Answering grief by grief.

Only the serpent in the dust Wriggling and crawling, Grinned an evil grin and thrust His tongue out with its fork. 70